Pricey Reichstag visitor centre scrapped

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Visitors to Berlin's iconic Reichstag parliament building will continue to face long queues before they can enter through a temporary container, after politicians scrapped plans for an expensive underground visitor centre.

Federal Minister for Construction Peter Ramsauer told Tagesspiegel on Monday he had put a halt to the planned centre because, at €500 million, it was due to cost more than the building's original renovation after the fall of the Wall.

The plan had been to mimic the roomy underground Capitol Hill visitor centre in Washington and allow visitors to enter through a concealed entrance.

"The main thing is that the wonderful view of the Reichstag building is not impaired," Wolfgang Thierse, Vice President of the Bundestag told Berliner Morgenpost back in 2012.

But now, the temporary visitor reception containers, which for the past three years have stood to the right of the front of the Reichstag, will remain in place - and continue to grace tourists' photos of the building, wrote the paper.

The paper also warned that the current chaos for visitors, who at peak times can be asked to join two-hour-long queues, will likely continue over this summer and beyond.

Tourists can also register their details ahead of time on the Bundestag website and are advised to come early – around 8am – or last thing at night, to avoid a long wait.

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